Lucife Belzeb
Brief general description of who this character is. Biography Life in the Village (0-5 Sweeps) Child in the village Early psychic manifestations Psychic disfunction illness Being turned by Porrim Porrim's Drinker Family (5-53 Sweeps) Learning to be a drinker Honing his powers Becomming a mentor Relationship with Ariana Convincing Porrim to leave Last Stand and Survival (53-56 Sweeps) The subjugglator raid on the village came not long after Porrim's departure. The family had known for some time, and made preparations. They would remain hidden for as long as possible, and allow the agents to leave the village first before confronting them. Once they reached an ambush point set up by Lucife and composed of the most able bodied older drinkers, they would hold the subjugglators at bay to give Ariana time to escape with the younger drinkers. However, what they had not expected were the tactics the subjugglators chose to employ. This would be the downfall of the drinkers. Nearly as soon as they arrived, the villagers peacefully confronted the purplebloods and requested that they leave on the grounds that the rumours they had heard were falsehoods and slander. The subjugglators responded by rounding up every villager at the edge of the town, and brutally executing them one by one after violently interrogating them, while they set fire to every hive in the village. This shocked and sickened many of the drinkers, particularly the younger ones who had only recently been their companions. Lucife felt enraged, but knew that should they leave their ambush site now, they would be easy prey for the subjugglators, and would not be able to grant Ariana the time needed to escape with the children. With all of his will, he kept the drinkers back, tempering their fury as best he could. When one of the young trolls with whom one of the drinkers was infatuated with was next in line for interrogation however, the drinker broke free of Lucife's persuasion and ran out into the open fields, giving himself up in exchange for the troll's life. He was quickly spotted and taken, though in response to his request they instead mutilated the troll and forced him to watch, before putting him through the torture process. Lucife did all he could to steel the troll's mind in order to subdue the pain, though this mercy would prove fatal. One of the subjugglator mystics could sense the psychological manipulation, and along with the direction the drinker had run from, they were able to identify the area where the drinkers would be located. With barely a warning, siege weaponry struck the drinker's ambush spot, demolishing their defenses and forcing them out into the open for a direct fight. Despite their training, the young drinkers were no match for the heavily trained murderous agents of the Church, and their specialised tools against the drinkers proved highly effective. The entire fight was a slaughter, and while the efforts of the drinkers was enough to dent the subjugglator ranks, it was far from enough to break them. Lucife expected this, and was amble to trigger the kill switch he had placed in many of their minds to prevent them from becoming living experiments to the Mirthful Church and the Empress. However, his method was uncovered quickly enough and soon several of the killers were upon him. Lucife fought back admirably, killing several of the highbloods himself, though he was eventually bled and subdued into submission, a swift blow to the head and suppressive drug sufficient to knock him out. In his last moments of consciousness, he attempted to euthanise as many of the captured drinkers as he could, though he was unsure as to whether he managed to get them all. He also remained unsure as to whether Ariana managed to escape. When Lucife next awoke, he was imprisoned in a crude chamber that looked part ways between a torture chamber and a laboratory. He suspected that he was correct on both counts, and that he was brought as a specimen for research and interrogation following his capture. He found that he was very effectively sealed so as to prevent him from using any means, physical or psychic, to escape. He was even muzzled to prevent him from chewing off his own tongue or biting. Drugs and a steady infusion of blood kept him from going into shock, while ensuring that he remained lucid enough to be aware of all that was being done to him. The drugs did nothing to dull the pain. Early on during his capture, Lucife found that he was being regularly injected with a mysterious black substance that supposedly had spiritual significance to the highbloods. Gradually, his blood turned black, and by he barely felt any remnants of his original blood within him. The change seemed to boost his drinker abilities, but simultaneously made him feel more ravenous and fragile, as though he needed to consume flesh or otherwise begin to break apart. The reason for this soon became clear: the highbloods were looking to turn him into a weapon. He would become so volatile that his only driving force would be violence and a need to feed, and they would target his mindless rage towards their enemies, likely including other drinkers. The experiments were brutal, even by troll standards, with variations of torture that would have easily killed mortal trolls being used to test his physical and mental limits. Though he did not break during questioning, he doubted that they were looking for answers. He confirmed this as he saw what they inflicted on one of the other captured drinkers after he had broken. In some cases, he and the other drinkers would be forced to answer questions in order to transfer their torture to the other, though both sides would often find themselves in similarly brutalised condition afterwards. Lucife could only think that it was fortunate he wiped the memories of all the drinkers before the fight to prevent them for revealing information about the escapees. His single remaining hope was that Porrim and Ariana had survived. That hope was soon extinguished. A few nights after their initial capture, one of his keepers brought Lucife to a block similar to a meat locker. In it was a string of small bodies and one adult sized one, all skinned and hanging with various looks of anguish on their faces and signs of torture. It did not take long for Lucife to count and find every one of the fleeing party members accounted for. Were it not for the drugs, Lucife might have been sick and passed out at the sight, but instead he wept through bloodshot eyes as his jailor told him of the successful capture and the ease with which the children were dispatched, to be used as a food supply for the starved drinker captives. It would not be long before the others were brought in for "feeding". If there was a moment that could be considered the tipping point for Lucife's sanity, it was the first feeding. All of the drinkers had been fed only enough to sustain them, and it was evident as they were dragged in that they were starved to the point of madness. When brought into a block with the skinned cadavre of the adult female drinker, they wasted no time in jumping to feed on it. Lucife approached cautiously. A part of him did not wish to believe that it was Ariana, that she had somehow escaped and that this was a ploy by the subjugglators to convince him to break, but he alone had any recollection of her at that point, and he had not once revealed that secret. With movements too rapid for the jailors to respond to, Lucife lunged at the feeding drinkers and tore them apart limb from limb, though even he himself no longer knew if this was to prevent them from enduring further torture or as a fit of rage for their desecration of his beloved's corpse. With this, he found himself the last remaining captive drinker. This also meant that he was sealed tighter than ever before, so that he may have no chance of dying before he would be able to compensate for all their lost test subjects. In the coming sweeps, he would find himself subjected to more excruciating experiments than any troll could fathom, and his now empty husk of a mind refilled itself with nothing but the pure desire for vengeance. Fortunately, Lucife still retained a single advantage that he had not yet revealed to his captors: they knew he was psychic, but they did not know the extent of his powers. Lucife's escape was conducted during his third sweep in the cells. With every passing night, he had ever so slowly made his way through the psychic barriers implanted on him, and quietly melding the minds of the researchers to his will. His invasion was too subtle to make any significant change in their behaviour, and required a great deal of time to build up, but eventually, he found his opening. During a conjugal visit with Vladim Dragul, a purple-blooded noble and one of the subjugglators that had originally captured him and led the experimentation program, he asserted enough command in the highblood's subconscious to make him request that the guards disable the mental field on the premise of attempting a new experiment, and pushed the guards enough not to question the otherwise impossible order. With the shield down, Lucife's mental capacities exploded, and he easily took hold of every mind in the facility for a brief time. The exertion was immense and incredibly painful for Lucife, but through his sweeps of quiet training against the shield he was able to keep it up more than long enough to force Vladim to switch places with him, both psychologically and biologically (by way of transferring his blood into Vladim through hemocasting). Once in, Lucife left Vladim's mind in his former body and shut down any function that would allow him to communicate, all the while taking complete control of Vladim's own body (he had already observed his mannerisms through sufficiently to acceptably mimic his behaviour). When he released his total domination (but keeping always a light influence on the staff), he was no longer Lucife, but rather Vladim, and "Lucife" had finally outgrown his usefulness. With a final order the drinker experimentation project was finally scrapped, and what the entire facility believed to be the last remaining drinker was violently and brilliantly disposed of. Lucife declared that the head of his corpse was to be put on display and that there was to be a feast in celebration of the achievements of the experiment (failing to mention that the meat to be prepared was that of his own former body, now the Count's), and in honour of the upcoming anniversary of the drinker nest's extermination. He considered it conveniently poetic timing that he escape just in time to celebrate the anniversary of his family's destruction, and that as a result he would be given a chance to look upon the faces of the trolls who had committed the genocide. Count Vladim Dragul (56-195 Sweeps) When Lucife had his would-be death announced to the subjugglators, "Vladim" was hailed as a hero of the faith, and was granted a wealth of land and the title of Count for "his" deeds. It took a great deal of effort for him to conceal his rage as the death of his family was celebrated heartily, and it was all he could do not to try and kill as many of the highbloods in the room before he too would be finished off. Lucife's time in the torture chambers had left him mute, but his lack of speech and vicious demeanour were not questioned, and any betrayal of bloodlust easily mistaken for the joyful nostalgia of his supposed prior "monster hunt". The notion of a monster hunt did indeed linger in Lucife's mind, though his thoughts were directed at creating a plan through which he would enact his revenge. Following the celebration, Lucife, under the continued disguise of the late Vladim, was brought to his new lands and given an impressive fortress as his home. It was here that he would encounter Vladim's concubine, a highblood from the far Eastern lands named Murasa Aasaki. It did not take long for her to realise that Lucife was not her abusive former mate, and to learn what he truly was. Admitting his true past to Murasa, the woman (who had no love for the highbloods, having been abducted from her homeland by them in her youth) agreed to aid him in his efforts. Soon after, the two became mates in earnest, and he gradually regained his ability to speak. With her guidance, Lucife spent every moment possible immersing himself in highblood culture, learning the ins and outs of their society and practices, so as to blend perfectly. It wasn't long before he had become a master of the aristocratic, and was deemed a model highblood. Lucife took well to his new identity and came to appreciate the subtleties of etiquette and courtesy. Lucife had always been highly polite, but perhaps due to his now unhinged nature, he came to hold a distaste for those that did not keep to a higher standard of politeness, and often feasted on "the rude" for sustenance as a form of punishment for them (Murasa would learn of this when Lucife mercilessly cut to pieces a troll that disrespected her). He would learn many skills from his lady, from swordsmanship to haute cuisine and wine tasting (Lucife's own brews always held a few drops of blood as well for sustenance). He also spent his additional time studying medicine, to the point of earning professional recognition as a surgeon. During this time, Lucife also continued his former captor's research, learning about the black substance his bloodstream had been injected with, and the implications it had on him as a drinker. The results were unquestionable: he had gained formidable power, but at the cost of the stability of his physical form. This made their intentions clear beyond any doubt: the drinkers were to be turned into disposable assassin beasts, capable of causing immense damage, then dissipating into dust once they had expended their usefulness. Only a continuous diet of flesh would sate his hunger. Fortunately Lucife had an ideal grocery list to sate his needs. Now all that remained was for him to fulfill the task he was molded for: wreaking as much havoc against his foes before he dissipated. Soon after his establishment as Count and the events of the drinker extermination became vague memories to most, Lucife had begun his revenge streak. His first victims were those that carried out the attack, whom he stayed in contact with after the event. Lucife had little difficulty earning their trust enough to see them in person at opportunities where he may capture them, torture them, consume parts of them, alter their appearance until they seemed much like average peasant lowbloods, and finally impaled them on large spikes on the premise of simple religious practice. The brutality of a highblood noble towards unruly (and law-abiding) peasantry was commonplace, if not expected, and his actions went unhindered. While inquiries took place with response to each disappearance, Lucife covered his tracks effectively, and each was practically forgotten by the time he reached the next victim. By the time he completed his revenge on the subjugglators and was prepared to advance to the higher authorities, Lucife had grown more violent and cruel towards his victims, feeding himself on hatred more and more. He began to use practices related to him implanting ability more frequently to devastating effect. In one case he implanted voices that coerced the victim to bleed himself every day, and replace it with a mixture of animal blood and troll waste (the result was a period of agonising and slow disease and death). One by one, each of his victims was killed in a manner more poetic and cruel than the last, each with a hint of the same forms of torture he himself endured. He would also grow progressively obsessive about his former family, and began to insist that Murasa take increasingly radical steps to adopt the likeness of his former mate Ariana. Eventually, his distortion sufficiently disgusted Murasa that she committed suicide, much to his dismay. With the Summoner's Rebellion resulting in the mass exodus of adult trolls from Alternia in 220 AS, Lucife's land inheritance was moved to a small planet in the slightly less developed region of known Alternian space (though not quite at the frontier). This expanded his territory and wealth significantly, and granted him many new serfs seeking new land and work, though it also placed him in the centre of a purple blood sector of space, where many significant counts, lords, and other nobles held land and feuded for territory and dominance. This was in a sense a frustration for Lucife, since he now had to treat in politics far more frequently. It did, however, also offer him an exceptionally effective cover. Degradation and the Phantom (195-198 Sweeps) The departure from Alternia did not halt Lucife's plans to kill every troll responsible for his family's destruction, but it did complicate it. The mass colonization that occurred during the period also resulted in many of the former land holders being gifted new territories on various planets. The inevitable rivalries and wars occurring from disputes over these territories made it difficult for a land-owning count like Vladim to travel to another territory without receiving a great deal of attention, and Lucife's desire to perform the kills personally prevented him from simply using proxies to achieve the task. What's more, Lucife could feel that Vladim's body was beginning to deteriorate, unable to sustain the highly unstable black blood that now filled his veins. If he did not change physical hosts, or at least divide the load, he would begin to break down, a victim to his own corrupted blood. His solution was simple: place a proxy as a figurehead to represent Vladim in his territory, while he took on a different identity in order to locate, murder, and devour his other targets. This proved successful for some time, as the first few planets he visited did not manage to identify him before he could complete his goals and move on. As time passed however, the former Count Dragul's body degraded ever more radically, and Lucife had difficulty maintaining his appearance. He was able to restrict the decomposition to a part of his face (which he concealed with a mask), though the effect also took a toll on his deranged mind, plunging him deeper into his own madness. Desperate for a new host, Lucife lurked within a local opera house, observing the attendants for a suitable target. Instead, what Lucife found was a young singer with great beauty and exceptional talent. Upon hearing her, Lucife became enamored, thinking back to his presumably deceased sister Lilith , "The Musician". He came to be obsessed with the troll, and trained her in secrecy (though he would not show himself to her, preferring instead to keep himself hidden). During this time, he blackmailed the opera house to grant her a role in the opera, though when she was rebuffed for a more prominent but (in Lucife's mind) unpleasantly shrill and pompous troll titled La Carlotta. In retaliation for this insult to the art and the subject of his patronage, Lucife abducted the prima donna, brought her to the opera stage in the dead of day, tied her neck and nearly severed arms to nooses, and forced her to sing a song which ended in a note sufficiently high to shatter the glass that supported her (thus, she triggered her own lynching as her arms were torn and hit large gongs on either side of the stage). Not wishing his singer to witness the gruesome act, Lucife abducted the troll and held her in the catacombs of the opera house, where he attempted to seduce her. The singer fell easily for Lucife's charms, though upon unmasking him, she came to realise he was a monster, and Lucife concluded that he would have no choice but to make her his fledgling. Before he could do so however, a force of soldiers led by the singer's matesprit came to aprehend him (having been tipped off by a clue the singer left for them). In his weakened and ever degrading state, Lucife was in no state to fight so many foes, and instead in desperation took over the body of the singer, claiming to have slain the mutant that attempted to apprehend her before the soldiers arrived. Later that night, Lucife would transfer himself once again, this time to the troll who sought to destroy him and in turn caused him to kill the singer. This man was a blueblood doctor by the name of Hannib Lektor. Hannib Lektor (198-220 Sweeps) In order to further improve his disguise, Lucife took advantage of his medical studies and the known title of the body he now inhabited to take the role of a doctor. It was not long before he opened a practice as a surgeon (saving some, and butchering others). In this time, Lucife also studied psychology, and added the profession of therapist to his sizable accreditation. Proving to be a capable socialite, "Doctor Lektor" hosted numerous dining events, demonstrating his vast knowledge and culinary skills to his guests (frequently by serving them extrtavagant dishes secretly composed of his victims). Eventually, Lucife encountered a snag in the form of a diligent legislacerator investigation team that sought to locate the one responsible for the various disappearances, and predicted where he would strike next. Through his connections in the field of criminal psychology, he was able to discover the reason for his being tracked: the legislacerators were using the aid of a troll by the name of Abrahm Helsin. Abrahm was known as a very talented profiler due to his remarkable empathic abilities, and he was said to be capable of penetrating the psyche of even the most broken mind. Finding himself fascinated with Abrahm's talent and seeing a need to put an end to the investigations, Lucife manipulated himself into a position on the legislacerator investigative team as Abrahm's psychologist, tasked with ensuring that he did not allow his empathic abilities to overcome his own will and turn him into the kind of murderer he was hunting. Lucife took advantage of Abrahm's weakness and gradually pushed him further towards embracing Hannib's own perspective, and pushed him to feel sentiments of fatherhood towards a young troll he had saved before taking her away and murdering her. Through his various manipulations, he convinced the legislacerators that Abrahm had gone insane, then prompted Abrahm to embrace Lucife's perspective, with the eventual goal of turning him into a drinker and his partner. All the while, Hannib continued to kill and eat some of his victims, while corrupting and sending out new villains for the investigative team to hunt down. During this time, a vacillating romance between the pair charged their therapy sessions, and soon Abrahm became obsessed with Hannib, conflicted between aiding him and capturing him. In one such case, Lucife was called in to treat and examine a wealthy seadweller by the name of Vensin Verger who was near the verge of death, supposedly the victim of a monster. He did so by turning the troll into a drinker, but masking the effects. Upon his revitalisation it became increasingly apparent that Vensin was insane. The beast was one of Vensin's own creations, and he held a fascination with "curing" death. Lucife used Vensin's own corruption as a foil for Abrahm, who in turn was considering using Vensin as a means of killing Hannib (Lucife). In the end, Abrahm sided with Hannib but was knocked out in the final battle. During that time, Lucife used his powers to break Verger's mind further, convincing the seadweller that eating his own face was a good idea. Disturbed by the sight, Abrahm requested that Hannib end the deranged troll's life, and Lucife obliged by snapping his neck (though this would not kill him, as he had already been turned into a drinker). Ultimately, the conflict between Abrahm and Hannib reached a climactic encounter between Lucife and the members of the investigation of the investigation (an encounter Lucife won, though he left the leader alive with non-mortal wounds out of respect and compassion for his dying matesprit), during which Lucife revealed to Abrahm that he had not killed the girl he had felt a strong paternity to, and the fact that he was a drinker. Despite Lucife's offer for Abrahm to run away with them, Abrahm refused, and Lucife responded by cutting the girl and Abrahm both before leaving, an ironic message of his drinkerdom. With the investigation in shambles, Lucife was once again free to continue his plans for revenge. The Blackblood Brood (220-848 Sweeps) It was not long after his escape that Lucife found himself lonely. Lacking the company of his potential matesprit/kismesis and not wishing to risk such a venture so soon after the last, Lucife opted for the next best thing: fledglings. During his travels, Lucife encountered and turned three young female trolls. The first of these was a member of a grimdark witchcraft cult named Cereza Bayone. The second was a half drinker hybrid created through experimentation named Rhayne Dhamir. The third and final of the three was a young psychic with the power to channel the matter manipulation powers of other psychic trolls named Delsin Reauwe. !!!Dismantling the Mirthful Church. While hunting trolls and acquiring his new fledglings, Lucife grew increasingly aware of a greater power behind many of the projects being worked on by many of his more significant targets. This inspired an interest in Hannib, and he soon determined that the uncovering of that mystery may well be more important than his quest for revenge. Fortunately, given the allegiances of those involved, he would not have to chose between the two. "Dragul" (848 Sweeps) As Lucife learned more about the plots hidden deep in the underbelly of the Empire, he became convinced of his need to halt them. Through his connections and expertise, he easily managed to infiltrate the ranks of various projects, and one at a time destroyed them from the inside, sabotaging the minds of those that worked on them. Lucife's own twisted sense of karma worked in his favour, as most often their destruction seem self induced as an effect of the projects they were working on. As time passed, Lucife discovered that many of the Empire's research projects were being conducted from a single major hub planet, and so he decided to make his move. He arranged to purchase territory in the location, and soon made his way. Upon arriving (and eating everyone en route), Lucife began his hunt forthose that might be involved in Imperial research. His search led him to encounter two women of note: Luccie Westen and her moirail Elmina Murray. The first had obvious clout and was the subject of several flushed affections from influential highbloods and even a seadweller, while the other was notable in how her appearance so closely resembled that of his late matesprit Ariana. Once more gripped by deranged obsession over his lost family, Lucife shifts his plans to instead stalk Elmina. Among his first actions is to turn Luccie into a drinker herself, causing her suitors to become wholly preoccupied with tending to her new unknown ailment. It was Lucife's hope that the turned woman would kill the suitors, leaving Elmina with no associations to speak of. And so while the suitors attempted in vain to understand what had become of their former subject of affection, Lucife seduced and turned Elmina into his handmaiden, binding her to him. What Lucife did not count on was that one of the suitors (a doctor) had called upon his former mentor for aid: Abrahm Helsin. Abrahm, now a seasoned hunter of monsters and particularly well versed with shadow droppers, had little difficulty dispatching the drinker Luccie, and immediately recognised the cause. After burning down Lucife's base of operation, he and the suitors took after him as he fled to his castle. The group eventualy located his hideaway, and tracked after him. Lucife's three subordinates fought them, though with Abrahm's knowledge they were able to best the three and not long after, Lucife himself. Though he had mortally wounded the suitors, they and Abrahm managed to deal fatal blows to Lucife's body, rapidly degrading him. With no other choice, he took over the place of his mortal enemy and one kismesis Abrahm. In the process however, his old body failed, and so his connection to Elmina was disrupted, causing the handmaiden to die. His three offspring managed to survive by feeding on the suitors, and Lucife returned to his quest, no longer as Vladim Dragul, but as reknown monster hunter Abrahm Helsin returning from a successful hunt. Pursuing the Shadow Army (848-901 Sweeps) Retreat into other aliases More direct approach with Shadow Projects Discovery of secret records Uncovering of Shadow Projects Death of Abrahm/Return of Hannib Lektor alias Manipulates and sabotages leaders of Shadow Projects Creates more fledglings to fight in shadows Kills corrupted fledglings Return to Alternia (901-913 Sweeps) Hears of potential return of drinkers Takes a proxy Hannib to Alternia and establishes him as popular therapist Family Reunion (913 Sweeps) It was not long after his settling in Alternia that Lucife learned he was not the only one to have heard the rumours about rainbow drinkers. Through his operations, it was discovered that Vensin Verger had not only survived his encounter with Hannib, but had grown even more twisted. He now believed himself to be Vladim Dragul, and performed operations on himself to emulate his appearance. The mad scientist had hidden himself away on Alternia and was constructing mutants on an Imperial grant for the sole purpose of flushing the drinkers out and flattening Alternia in the process. Lucife was prepared to return to Alternia and deal with it directly, but refrained when he heard moments later that the drinkers were indeed seeking Verger out, and were in fact under the impression that he might be Dragul. This was an opportunity to gauge the abilities of the new drinkers, and instil a fear of Dragul in them that might persuade them to follow his cause, but fear and avoid his motivations. They would learn in part of the dangers he held back, and see the flaws in his own method so that the mistakes would not be repeated. It was a brutal approach, and could very well make him seem to be an enemy to these new drinkers, but it would prove far more immediately effective and after all, he was already well past redemption. Using his connections, he managed to arrange a meeting with Astrea Maryam, one of the trolls seeking out Verger. Upon meeting her, he determined with no hint of doubt that she had descended from Porrim, and from her companion it was obvious that there was indeed a new drinker family. Astrea herself shocked him, however, as she bore something that he had not seen in all his extended life: a power similar to his. Where he could project his mind into others, she could steal the minds of others. With that discovery, his plans grew all the more significant. Astrea's power and personality would inevitably lead her down a dark path, as his own had, and all the faster since she had already taken evil into herself. He understood three fundamental truths about the situation: Astrea could not maintain herself in this way if she continued to drink the minds of others, she was the kind of troll who would drink the minds of others in times of dire necessity, and those necessities would be an eventuality. Knowing this, Lucife came to a simple conclusion: she needed to balance her power with his own. She would first have to understand the situation and the nature of his approach. Then, she would need to learn his powers by absorbing him (or at the very least one of his proxies). Finally, she would need to develop that knowledge until she could reliably dispose of the consciousnesses she burdened upon herself. Unfortunately, it became quickly apparent that other members of the family might intervene, as they did not understand her powers and would fear a bond such as the one he sought to put in place, especially given his own corruption. As such, he would have to subvert them. Even more so, he would have to ensure that the one who proclaimed herself a deity (and that he perceived as a threat to Astrea's growth) in their family would not completely undo his efforts. Fortunately, Verger presented a perfect opportunity. With the subtle seeds of influence Lucife had planted in the girl, Astrea had no trouble coming to the right conclusions: drinking Verger to gain his knowledge would be invaluable to her. What's more, he had made sure that his traces would be removed from the evidence so that only Astrea would know to track Lucife down afterwards. For the remainder, he found himself pleased to find that things proceeded even more smoothly than he could have expected: the family killed Verger, Astrea drank his mind and learned of Hannib, and Lilith departed without putting any real resistance. The only snag in the wheel was that of Lilith's replacement: A'ira. The woman was a wild card Lucife did not trust, and her behaviour was less obviously emotional compared to Lilith's, making her a risk. Nonetheless, the pieces were in place and Astrea knew that to complete the puzzle, she would have to seek out Hannib. What did please him was Astrea's response. Rather than approach him blindly, which while convenient for him would have been a sign of poor judgement, she sought the aid of the one individual he was not poised to respond to. Her willingness to use such powers to deal with him showed that she knew he was dangerous and had the good sense not to be predictable in her preparations. However, it also showed him why she needed his power all the more. Should she not have the correct guidance in how to protect herself, she could endanger herself with such tactics. Nonetheless, after a brief conversation, he bestowed himself to her. The last key piece was placed, and the first part of his mission was done. It would not be long before he was sought out, however. First, he was visited by an irate Lilith. Following a brief exchange, he acquiesced to her demands with few qualms. He would abandon his presence in Astrea's mind (though that was a blow, he believed it would do her well not to rely on him too heavily, so in truth it was a good thing) and he would return to Alternia and reside under the watchful eyes of the drinkers. Given that it would bring him closer to Astrea and those that influenced her without having to fight them directly, this suited him well. Not long afterwards, he was reunited with his long lost matron. He made no effort to hide his now broken nature to her, knowing that she of all people would see and judge him most fairly, and most accurately, all the while granting him forgiveness and trust he knew he would not deserve. Deceiving his mother into thinking that he was redeemable hurt, though in a sense he had come the closest now than he probably ever would. His return to Alternia was rapid and uneventful. He left a proxy at his former location to ensure that his operations could continue, knowing that his fledglings would see to it that things remained operational. Meanwhile, he would return to reclaim his former abode, in the ancient castle of the Count Dragul. Given its historical significance and intimidating aesthetic, it was kept largely intact thanks to the zealotry of what remained of the Mirthful Church, though some reparations was necessary. For a drinker of Lucife's ability, it took little more than a day. With that done, he claimed a small retinue of thralls to feed from and began his house arrest. Powers and Abilities Rainbow Drinker Lucife is the eldest of Porrim's fledglings, and through intense training and practice, is easily among the strongest, if not the strongest. His drinkerdom has granted him a variety of powers. Hemophagia Like all rainbow drinkers, Lucife is capable of drinking blood, and must do so for subsistence. However, Lucife's advanced talent with this power is that he is capable of absorbing a great deal of strength and to a lesser degree the powers of those he drinks from. Drinking from other rainbow drinkers and psychics in particular boosts his own drinker and psychic abilities. Immunity to Sunlight Like all drinkers, Lucife is immune to the Alternian sun, and can draw power from sunlight. However, following his conversion to black blood, this immunity has waned due to the instability of his blood when under sunlight. For this reason, while Lucife can endure sunlight, he may not retain a solid physical form under it for more than a brief period of time. Glow Like all drinkers, Lucife's skin produces a glow. He is sufficiently disciplined to turn the glow off or adjust its intensity at will. He is also capable of localising his glow to specific regions in order to produce various effects, which he sometimes uses in his visual illusions. Enhanced Physical Ability Like all drinkers, Lucife possesses enhanced speed, strength, and senses. Due to his age and experience, he is considerably more powerful in all these respects compared to even most other drinkers. He is exceptionally talented with smell in particular however, which is an enhancement of a talent he possessed before becoming a drinker. Regeneration Like all drinkers, Lucife is capable of rapid wound recovery. Due to his age and experience, this talent is significantly more potent then that of younger and less disciplined drinkers. Immortality Like all drinkers, Lucife is unable to die from old age, and may remain eternally youthful. He usually portrays himself as an older troll, though this is a conscious aesthetic choice. He remains however vulnerable to the standard weaknesses of rainbow drinkers, and can hypothetically be killed through such means. Production of Thralls Lucife is highly adept at the creation of thralls. This is in large part due to his natural affinity with his psychic ability, though his hemokinesis grants him further abilities unique to his drinkerdom. Due to his immense power and discipline, Lucife is capable of creating every sort of thrall, including handservants (a power usually exclusive to matrons), and do so in large quantities (Lucife is able to create and control entire armies of thralls at once with little difficulty). Hemokinesis Lucife is especially adept at the manipulation of blood, particularly his own, as a means to enhance a variety of his powers. His most potent ability is to disperse his blood into the air imperceptibly, allowing him to implant himself into others. He is able to use this in order to transfer pheromones to influence others in his presence (either to comply to his will or see illusions he implants), as well as manipulate the air around him (such as to choke or intoxicate people or create blood-based visual effects). Hemocasting Lucife is sufficiently skilled with hemokinesis to bend blood into solid as well as semi-solid and gaseous stages. He has in the past used this ability to forge blood armour and weapons for various uses. Transformation Lucife is capable of transformation. This includes changes in physical appearance (Lucife regularly changes his appearance and that of his avatars to reflect his mood and needs at the given time, including changes to his apparent age) to complete transformations. Lucife often combines this ability with his hemokinesis to covert into blood (which can appear as a mist, pool, cloud, or even a fluid shape for his given needs). Another common transformation of Lucife's is to become a swarm of bats, effectively granting him the ability of flight. Black Blood Due to the experimentation he endured during his capture by the highbloods, Lucife developed a form of deeper, nearly black blood. This blood is richer than normal drinker blood, but also genetically unstable, and as such is far more malleable than normal blood or even drinker blood, allowing Lucife to change its structure with great ease to enhance his abilities (particularly pheromone manipulation, hemocasting, and physical alteration; though transforming does make his host body unstable and therefore deteriorate faster). Lucife's blood is capable of bonding with the blood of others to allow him to meld physically with his victims as well as psychologically. However, it's unstable structure makes if difficult to retain a fixed form for extended durations, and over time it cannibalises its host, requiring Lucife to constantly sustain it by feeding on troll flesh or transferring to a new body when his current one becomes too unstable (or alternatively planting his blood and psyche into others to reduce the strain on his primary body). His blood also responds negatively to sunlight, and will deteriorate faster when exposed to it (thus making it difficult for Lucife to retain a physical form in sunlight). This blood is transferable, and may be inherited by the drinkers he turns or possesses (including his three fledglings). The instability of the blood seems to have an effect on psychological stability as well, though the degree to which this is the case is uncertain. Psychic Lucife was born a powerful psychic (specifically, an empath-telepath hybrid), and through hundreds of sweeps of experience coupled with the enhancement from his drinkerdom, he has honed those powers into a devastating mental arsenal. Read and Affect Emotions Lucife's hybridised psychic powers allow him to sense the emotions of others passively, and affect them at will. He has used this in the past to lead, heal, and manipulate others. Since developing drinkerdom, he has bonded his ability to hemocasting, and can amplify the potency of these powers by having his subjects inhale air containing his microscopic blood crystals. Persuade Lucife is capable of powerful and subtle psychic manipulation, and can persuade people into performing actions or feeling sentiments without being aware of the manipulation. This power is enhanced greatly though pheromone gas and his own knowledge of the troll psyche. Mental Healing and Fortification Lucife is able to use his ability to repair mental damage and remove blockages, thus effectively granting him the ability to cure various forms of mental illness and wounds inflicted by psychics. He is also able to use this power to aid drinkers in better accepting and bonding with their drinker parasite, thus strengthening them as drinkers. Mental Avatars (Inception) Lucife is capable of projecting an image of himself into the minds of others (beasts and trolls), effectively acting as a subconscious avatar for himself within their mind. He is able to use this to inhabit and even overtake the minds of others, either to accompany them or convert them into his thrall. Lucife has the ability to control what his image consists of in terms of memories and capabilities (including even his powers to some degree, depending on the capabilities of the being he has implanted himself into), and he has complete control over these images as though they were extensions of himself. Doctor In addition to his powers, Lucife studied and trained under aliases to become a licensed and accomplished surgeon and therapist, giving him medical and psychological knowledge beyond most trolls. Surgical Knowledge As an experienced surgeon, Lucife has a deep knowledge of troll biology and physiology. He is able to translate that to medical, combat, and forensic purposes. Psychological Knowledge Lucife is a highly experienced therapist, both professionally and non-professionally. He has a deep understanding of how the troll mind works, and the various psychoses they might have. He is able to harness this knowledge to manipulate others as well as to profile them. Drug Knowledge Due to his professions, Lucife has an encyclopedic knowledge of pharmaceutical grade drugs, including legal, black-market, and experimental. He is able to identify drugs by symptom, chemical composition, and even smell and taste, and is capable of identifying the best drug to use in any given circumstances. Ancestor During his lifetimes as the highblood Count Dragul and the noble therapist Hannib Lector, Lucife learned and practiced various skills. Knowledge of Upper Class Lucife's time in highblood society has given him a deep knowledge of highblood society, including social circles, culture, and general happenings. He has through his time formed various connections and infiltrated several key areas within the echelons of the highbloods and the Mirthful Church, giving him a great deal of access into them, even since his abandonment of his Dragul persona. Knowledge of Etiquette Lucife's experience with the social elite has given him a deep understanding and appreciation for formal etiquette, including finer cultural details and esoteric particularities unique to various regions. Lucife's high standards for etiquette are readily known with most of his personas (though the knowledge of his actions against those that do not abide by them varies). Knowledge of Torture As Dragul, Lucife engaged in a great deal of torturous activities, often for the purpose of revenge, but also for interrogation and pure sadism. He has an in-depth knowledge of the practical applications of a wide variety of torture forms, and which methods are most effective for which outcomes. Knowledge of the Shadow Projects Lucife uncovered a great deal of information about the Empress' various secret projects aimed at harnessing powerful biological weapons, including drinkerdom, for various purposes. His unique ties to these projects means that he is among the most knowledgeable troll regarding these projects that is not directly involved in realising them. Knowledge of Alternian History Lucife's age means that he is familiar (through experience) with a great deal of Alternian and troll history, and his connection to the highblood community gave him access to much of what he did not experience directly. As such, he is among one of the most well versed in troll history barring the other ancestors (and more so than them with regards to more recent history). Relationships General relationship brief. Romances Ariana Tiloak Their relationship with person 1. Abrahm Helsin Abrahm Helsin served as a foil to Lucife's alias as Hannib Lektor for a significant period of his life. Their relationship with each other was complicated to say the least. Due to Abrahm's unique empathic abilities, he was of interest to Lucife early on, though his role in trying to capture the one responsible for the string of murders Lucife himself was responsible for also made him an adversary. The "game" Lucife and Abrahm played was simple: Lucife would try to corrupt Abrahm into joining him, and Abrahm would try to resist corruption and reveal Hannib's identity as the killer. Lucife nearly won several times, though Abrahm managed to resist with great resiliency, despite succumbing to some . Ultimately, Lucife was unable to turn Abrahm to Elmina Murray Their relationship with person 3. Family Porrim Maryam Their relationship with person 1. Cereza Bayonne Their relationship with person 1. Rhayne Dhamir Their relationship with person 1. Delsin Reauwe Their relationship with person 1. Astrea Maryam Their relationship with person 1. Friends/Acquaintances Vensin Verger Their relationship with person 1. Lilith Helios Their relationship with person 1. A'ira Their relationship with person 1. Treise Corrax Their relationship with person 1. Personality As Young Lucife Following his capture and torture, Lucife's personality took several dark turns. With the replacement of his blood, Lucife became convinced that he was tainted, and having failed his mission to protect the family and witnessing what he believed to be its complete eradication, including his matesprit, he gradually became obsessed with somehow salvaging or recreating his former life. On several occasions, Lucife would seduce young females who showed signs of purity in what he viewed to be a corrupt world, hoping that they might stand in for the women he had lost and thus grant him salvation. His tireless pursuits to redeem himself were only matched by his desire for revenge, and his strong sense of morality turned into a twisted sense of violent and brutal judgement towards those he considered responsible for his corruption. Lucife's mentality was that of karmic retaliation: the highbloods wished him to be a murderous beast, so he became just that, and made them his first targets. Aside his obsessions, Lucife no longer retained much of his prior self, using only vague and twisted memories of his traits (the most common being his penchant for politeness and etiquette, though taken to extreme degrees, where a slight offense would be justifiable cause for death) to define the personas he created for himself, while his true self remained consumed with destroying as many highbloods and seadwellers as possible.In this regard, Lucife no longer held any sense of self worth, and was prepared to die in pursuit of revenge. As Vladim, Lucife abandoned much of his usual demeanour in favour of the characteristics common of a highblood: vicious, proud, and devout. Lucife's care for etiquette took a perverse turn, and he took pleasure in torturing and executing trolls, regardless of caste, for failures to adhere to it. Torture was a regular practice for Lucife as Vladim, as was the consumption of his victims, though he insisted on performing these actions in a dignified manner, both as a point of etiquette and to conceal his true nature. During the Civil Shore Disputes, Vladim demonstrated a sincere hatred of the seadwellers, and he made no effort to conceal his vicious nature when confronting them. He took genuine pleasure in harming his enemies, and those that did not approach him in deference. As Hannib, Lucife concealed much of the more violent demeanour of his personality as Vladim, choosing instead to emphasise a subtle and manipulative attitude more fitting for a psychologist. Hannib was generally seen as detached, though acutely perceptive and uncommonly knowledgeable of matters of high society and etiquette. His responses to offenses made to him remained the same, though they were done in private, while in public he concealed his rage. In later iterations of this persona however he did occasionally break this facade for the purpose of provoking or disturbing others, usually by means of shockingly inappropriate observations or disregard for personal privacy, which he did not believe was a right held by those that were corrupt. Much later into his life, Lucife came to appreciate the futility of his endeavour to recreate the purity of his former life, as he was well beyond any form of redemption. This conviction led Lucife to both loathe and embrace his darkness, and his aims became further twisted to instead create a mirror of his former family, that would embrace darkness and the merciless pursuit and destruction of those that induced his state. The discovery that Porrim and Lilith still lived and that a new family had been created solidified this mentality, as he did not believe himself worthy of returning to it. Lucife grew much more willing to employ more psychological tactics, and use his own influence to further corrupt his enemies, in an effort to make them as he was to be: a violent self-destructive force to be unleashed at the heart of those that were once their allies. Though he remained reluctant to harm or corrupt the innocent, he held much less regard for collateral damage and had few qualms about permitting the corrupt to harm the innocent if it meant they would also harm other evils or achieve a goal. In this sense, older Lucife adopted a much stronger ends justifying the means approach. However, he still felt a sense of restraint around his former family and Astrea, who he viewed as another innocent in danger of becoming corrupt as he had, showing that he still retained his values, despite feeling that he no longer adhered to them as he should. Lucife's final tie to the physical world was his renewed sense of duty towards protecting the new family, thus accomplishing his original goal, though his awareness of his increasing frailty has given him the resolve to pass on his knowledge and experience to someone who would not misuse it as he has. Quotes Quotes By Character *Whenever feasible, one should always try to eat the rude... *Discourtesy is, unspeakably ugly to me... *Now you're being rude, and I hate rude people... *You will not persuade me, with appeals to my intellectual vanity... *(To Abrahm) Fear... Is the price of our instrument, but I can help you bear it... *Killing must feel good to God, too... He does it, all the time... *(To Porrim) Some things are better left unseen, mother dearest... Your son died in that attack, I am just his ashes... *(To Porrim) You have not seen the things I have done mother, you wouldn’t like me much if you did... Little Lucife saw some very bad things, and so he became a very bad boy... *If you think Vincent Verger was the last of such specimen, you are sorely mistaken... The Empire holds much darker things, things you would do better not to see, but the hornet’s nest has been stirred, and it will not be so acquiescent as to leave upon request... Now that you’ve woken up and seen one of the monsters hiding under your bed, what will you do, tell me... Sooner or later my little flashlight won’t hold them back, and all those monsters will come out to play... *I have sown what seeds I needed to, with or without my guidance, she will be safe, from herself at least... Her power absorbs, but does not emit, and she cannot retain that much corruption within herself, so I gave her an out... Quotes About Character *Quote 1 *Quote 2 *Quote 3 Trivia *Lucife has used aliases based off of various other fictional villains: Count Vladim Dragul is based off of Count Vlad Dracula, the Phantom off of the Phantom of the Opera, and Hannib Lektor off of Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs. *Due to his age as well as the fact that he has spent most of his life training his powers (unlike Porrim), Lucife is theoretically the most powerful rainbow drinker alive, and one of the strongest characters in the Or8weaver universe. *In the story of Dragul, he is said to have three companions who in popular culture are the "Brides of Dragul". In reality, these are three fledglings of Lucife's who aid him in his secret war against the Empire, and they could be more aptly considered the "Daughters of Dragul" (though the term would be lost on most trolls). **The three fledglings, Cereza, Rhayne, and Delsin, each specialise in a different form of hemokinesis (mixed with other techniques), represented by liquid, solid, and gaseous states respectively. *Lucife's "Mind Palace" is based on the Cappella Palatina. "The foyer is the Norman Chapel in Palermo, severe and beautiful and timeless, with a single reminder of mortality in the skull graven in the floor..." Category:Characters Category:Non-Canon Characters Category:Crossover Characters Category:Ancestors Category:Rainbow Drinker Family Category:Rainbow Drinker Familiars Category:Old Empire Category:Trolls Category:Rainbow Drinkers Category:Psychics Category:Protagonists Category:Neutrals